Originally posted by DirtyP:
Originally posted by Oakland-Niner:
MJD = little dude - very fast
Rice = little dude - very fast
Sproles = little dude - very fast
Its his vision that gets him those initial yards, but its his speed that prevents him from taking it to the house. If dude didn't injure his knees early, we would probably be talking about him as a first ballot HOFer.
MJD's longest run was only 1 yard longer (and not a touchdown) than Gores longest run. Lesean McCoy's longest run was only 5 yards longer than Gores. Chris Johsons longest run was SHORTER than Gores longest run. CJ spiller and Darren Sproles' longest runs were shorter than Gores longest run. Same goes for Arian Foster and Adrian Peterson. None of those guys longest run of 2011 were touchdowns. Gore also had more long runs than all of these guys accept McCoy. Does this mean that those guys don't have any speed either?
Frank Gore's lack of 4.4 speed truly gets a lot of attention from his own fan base. There is absolutely no shame in getting caught from behind by a defensive back that runs a 4.3 when you've already run 40 yards downfield with the football.
The main flaw in your reasoning is that you're not considering the field position from where the run began.